School Board To Consider Cutting $25 Million Budget

GLOUCESTER — The School Board, facing severe cutbacks in the money it is requesting for the county under a proposed budget for next year, will examine the effect of those cuts Tuesday.

The board will meet at the Colonial courthouse at 7 p.m.

The school division had asked for about $25 million next year, including about a 42 percent increase in county funding from about $8 million to $12 million.

But County Administrator William H. Whitley has already cut about $2.4 million from the division's request, a move that school staff say will make it difficult to get by next year.

Whitley has said that all areas of the budget have been cut back for next year because the county is already facing a 30 percent increase in real estate taxes just to pay for necessities and to make up for a lack of state and federal funds. Taxes would rise from 80 cents per $100 of assessed value to $1.04 under his proposal.

If the school division were given its entire request, taxes would rise by another 30 cents to $1.34, Whitley has said.

In a memo to the school board, R. Larry Johns, director of budget and finance, said the cutbacks will allow the division to pay almost all of its salary increases next year, but would eliminate funds for new positions, additional supplies, furniture, equipment and projects.

The major problem is that the state is requiring that some of those new positions, such as elementary school guidance counselors, be filled, Johns said. The state also is requiring that the division give teachers 8.9 percent pay raises.

Johns is recommending the school board ask the Board of Supervisors to give it the more than $200,000 in additional funds the county expects to receive from the state. That money could be used to pay for some new positions, he said.

But the supervisors have not decided how they will spend that extra money. It also could be used to reduce the amount of the tax incease by 2 cents.

The school board and supervisors will hold a joint meeting tonight to review the budget.

In other matters Tuesday, the school board will:

Consider a recommendation to increase meal prices by 10 to 25 cents for most meals to cover the rising cost of food and labor.

Without the increases, the system could run into a $100,000 deficit next year, staff members said. There would be no increase for student breakfasts, but all student lunches and faculty breakfasts would increase by 10 cents. Faculty lunches would increase by 25 cents.